The field of this invention is electronic toys, and in particular electronic toys which interact with persons or with each other.
Electronic toys are becoming more common. Electronic toys which can move under the influence of electric motors and generate sounds with the use of programmed integrated circuits and sound generation apparatus, are at the leading edge of existing toy technology. Such toys can be pre-programmed to carry out certain actions at specific or random times, or can be triggered to perform such actions by means of touch or sound. For example, a finger touch on a specified portion of the toy, or vibration of the toy, or the generation of sound such as by the clapping of hands or loud speech may trigger a response from the toy.
Nonetheless, these stimuli which trigger the toy to take certain actions tend to be across a broad spectrum of sounds or touch. It would be an advantage to choose a means to receive a signal which is more focussed and can be tuned to the characteristics of the particular toy. In addition, pairs of certain leading edge prior art toys may appear to interact when one toy is triggered to make a sound which in turn triggers the second to commence making sounds, perhaps with the addition of certain movements. These actions are not truly synchronized but merely occur when one toy reacts to a stimulus which happens to be provided by the other toy.
It would be a further advantage to have toys that truly interact in a synchronized fashion, both with sound and action, in order to create a reproducible action scene.
Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention, an electronic toy comprises a pre-programmed integrated circuit, at least one electric motor adapted to create movement in at least one moving part of the toy, and a motion sensor, wherein when the motion sensor detects a movement, a signal is generated within the toy which triggers the integrated circuit to control the electric motor or motors to create particular actions by moving at least one moving part of the toy.
In a further aspect, the invention comprises an ensemble of electronic toys comprising a first toy and a second toy, wherein each toy comprises a pre-programmed integrated circuit, at least one electric motor, at least one moving part, means to generate a signal, and means to link each toy""s integrated circuit to the integrated circuit of a neighbouring toy, such that when a signal is generated and the integrated circuits of each toy are linked, each toy will interact with the other in a synchronized manner according to a first selected program embedded on the integrated circuit of each toy.
In a further aspect, the ensemble additionally comprises a third toy comprising the essential elements of the first and second toys, such that when a signal is generated, the first toy will interact with the second toy and the third toy will interact with the second toy, in a synchronized manner, according to a second selected program embedded on the integrated circuit of each toy.
In a further aspect, the invention additionally comprises further similarly configured toys adapted to interact in a synchronized manner according to the identity and location of each toy.
In a further aspect of the invention, each toy of the ensemble of electronic toys comprises a self-contained power source comprising one or more batteries. When a toy is linked to one or more neighbouring toys, the batteries of all such linked toys are connected in series creating a single current and voltage in all linked toys.
Further aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following drawings and description.